Joseph Kolb, Reuters

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A New Mexico housewife was arrested after she tried to pull her husband's penis off during a fight in front of their two young children, police said on Wednesday.

Rebecca White, 30, was charged with aggravated assault on a household member and child abuse earlier this week, and she posted bond on Wednesday, the Albuquerque Police Department said. She says she was acting in self-defense.

According to a criminal complaint filed by police, White and her husband Rodney became embroiled in a violent argument last weekend at their Albuquerque home in front of their two children, ages two and 10.

The complaint said Rodney White accused his wife of breaking a flat-screen television, punching him in the face, and grabbing a knife and meat fork and threatening to kill him.

The complaint says Rebecca White then began choking her husband, and that in a fit of rage she grabbed his genitals through his clothes and began to twist, trying to pull his penis off.

"This wasn't funny because it was happening in front of children," said Sergeant Ferris Simmons, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department. "To see your parents go at it like this is sad."

Rebecca White told police the fight began because her spouse was jealous of a man on her Facebook page, and that she smashed the television because her husband threw her computer on the floor.

She told investigators her husband began to choke her first, and that she had reacted as she did in self-defense. Simmons said Rebecca White left the home following the fight, but later telephoned police and handed herself in.